Unity 3D Shows How Anyone Can Be a Game Designer

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LOS ANGELES ― Technology has leveled the playing field in many
industries, making it possible for amateurs and enthusiasts to
compete or collaborate with professionals in ways that would have
been impossible even a decade ago.

The latest industry to experience this revolution is games.
Thanks to a wave of new products that simplify and streamline the
game-development process, an aspiring game maker no longer needs
a degree, a big team or a job at a major development house to
make professional-grade
games for others to enjoy.

One of the most prominent services to push this kind of
innovation is the Unity game engine.

"We as a company have always focused on what we call the
democratization of game development, making high-quality tools
available at a very affordable cost to the widest range of
developers," Brian Bruning, director of developer relations at
Unity Technologies, told TechNewsDaily in an interview at the
E3
gaming expo.

Unity 3D is a game design tool that allows users to create game
environments, scripting, storylines, and events in a simple
software kit. Unity makes it possible for developers of all skill
levels to make a great game. That includes developers who aren't
professionals … yet.

"We've seen a lot of hobbyist game programming, and we're excited
by that. A lot of innovation happens from that core. But even
more importantly, that core of students and hobbyists and weekend
coders, they feed the next generation of game developers,"
Bruning said. "Some are just in it for the fun of it. They have
their day jobs and they just want to see what they can do.

"We've seen some guys that created companies around what they did
one weekend and are now bringing that game to market."

Tools from Unity and other services are fueling a rapidly growing
interest in amateur game design. A year and a half ago, Unity
released a free version of its game design tool. Since then, the
number of downloads has jumped from around 7,000 to well over
500,000, with a consistent user base of 150,000 each month. While
major studios such as EA are using Unity because it is such a
fully featured creation tool, a large portion of its users are
not professionals. They're just like you or someone you know: a
person with a great idea and the will to see it through.

In its six-year history, Unity has been used to create over
10,000 games. With the growing interest in mobile gaming,
developers are increasingly using Unity for iPhone games. A third
of those 10,000 games were made for iOS.

Unity is unique not just for making a game engine that can
export to
any platform (including Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation
Network, PC, Flash,
iOS and Android), but for helping developers market their
games.

"We recognize that it's not just about creating a great game,
it's how you market and sell the game after it's been created.
That's one of the harder parts," Bruning said.

Unity offers a service, called Union, that helps the developers
choose the right market and get into closed platforms, such as
iOS. Unity takes 20 percent of game revenue; the rest goes
directly to the developer.

Another huge hurdle in game design, especially for small teams or
individuals, is creating the assets needed for a game, including
the audio, character models, textures, physics engine and more.
So Unity created a store where designers can both buy and sell
their assets.

"There are developers making more money in the asset store than
they made on a game," Bruning said. "We see it as a way to help
the community build better games. It's just a different approach.
We've got a guy who created a whole game using nothing but assets
from the asset store. An entire game, which is a big milestone
for us."

Unity has even struck deals with major record labels to include
popular songs and a large library of background music for sale in
the asset store. In other words, Unity isn't just a tool, it's a
one-stop shop for game designers.

"You can get pretty deep into it, but it's also very high level,
such that an artist or producer can throw something together in
order to show his team," Bruning said. "We're seeing this sort of
rapid prototyping and collaboration among teams happening a lot
more because of the ease of use of Unity."

Rapid prototyping is a prized feature among independent
developers and one of the reasons Unity is so widely used in game
jams, marathon sessions of game making during which independent
developers try to make a complete game in a short deadline.

"Around 30 percent of the submissions for Global Game Jam were
built in Unity, because people can create a full, interesting
game in 48 hours using our tools," Bruning said.

While the major game publishers are still taking in the vast
majority of game revenue each year, Unity is helping independent
and amateur developers carve out their own piece of the game
market. And in the process, they're democratizing a technical
field, showing game lovers everywhere that they too can feel the
thrill of seeing their name on a real game.